It was ridiculously early, cold and had only had 3 hours sleep, however this seemed according to others to be the typical pre requisite for a VOC trip. It was a beautiful drive up to Pemberton where we met up/stopped for some morning coffee. Once everyone had their required caffeine/energy on board, it was off to Cerise Creek.
I had no idea what to expect but that is what made it exciting. However i don’t think anyone anticipated the amount of snow!
We started off marking out the trail with reflective fluorescent tags, and then half the group did maintenance some of us fixing bogs and building bridges. And others continued to mark out the trail ahead.
Once our jobs were done (to quite a high standard might I add) we continued to make our way up the trail, into ever deepening snow with breaks of beautiful mountain scenery.
Once at the hut, which was a lot better than I expected, people got warmed up and got some great meals going, not to mention the (spiked) fondue and excellent selection of fruits!
After an interesting night’s sleep we were up and ready to take on what was Vantage peak. Having mastered the several ridges and wading through waist deep snow in parts we all successfully made it to Vantage Col. Here there was some spectacular scenery of glaciers (of which I had never seen – Flippin’ Awesome!) and surrounding mountains.
Now to the top …. for some of us, due to a tactical but unfortunate split. Myself, Jacob and Chris eventually made it up after some pretty exposed scrambling. At the top the views were mind blowing and the silence was unreal, however the best bit was yet to come … sliding down the majority of the mountain ! So good ! Yet so wet and cold – not good. But we all warmed up during the hike back to the cars. This great day was then topped off with a good meal and a side of banter.
All in all it was a really great trip with some really great people. Hopefully if/when i come back to beautiful BC I hope to go on a cheeky VOC trip and just maybe some of you guys might be able to join.
Cheers for the awesome experience guys,
Ben Lucas